SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_01: As Jeff indicated, my name is Webb.
SPEAKER_01: I usually have the privilege of standing up here before you and singing, but this morning it was my privilege immensely to stand among you and sing.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you guys always sing like that.
SPEAKER_01: Man.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for singing.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for singing with me this week as well.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for lifting your voices because when we do, when we declare the things that are true about God with our songs, one of the things we're doing, not everything, but one of the things we're doing is instructing one another, admonishing one another, and encouraging one another.
SPEAKER_01: And so thank you all so much for taking care of each other with your singing.
SPEAKER_01: When we just come and listen to somebody else sing, it does something.
SPEAKER_01: But when we hear our friends declare that the same things are true, man, that's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for singing.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for encouraging me this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for lifting your voices.
SPEAKER_01: But today it's my privilege, instead of playing guitar, to open the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you would please join me in opening our Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy in chapter five, chapter eight.
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: Be good if I knew what text I was supposed to teach on, right?
unknown: Woo!
SPEAKER_01: I know Jeff just prayed, but since we already have one goof up that early in, would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Lord, thank you for this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for today.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that when your word is opened before us, you are a faithful and just God to administer it as you see fit.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we pray that as we study your word today, by your Spirit's power, and out of your great mercy and love, and through the atonement purchased by your son on the cross, you would see fit to create in us a clean heart and a right spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That we would know you and love you today.
SPEAKER_01: In your name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So for the last few weeks, we've been studying the book of Deuteronomy, starting in chapter four, when Moses switches from telling stories to preaching.
SPEAKER_01: But Moses is standing in front of the nation of Israel telling them stuff, telling them all sorts of things.
SPEAKER_01: And I haven't been able to shake from my mind, as we've as Pastor Jeremy shared with us last week, about how God's word is passed on to the next generation and how Pastor Jason the week before that shared about what it is that makes this God unique.
SPEAKER_01: I haven't been able to get out of my head this picture that almost feels blasphemous of Moses talking himself in circles.
SPEAKER_01: Like, who am I to say that Moses is talking in circles?
SPEAKER_01: But I think he's doing it on purpose, and clearly it's written down, so it must be on purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And the best way I've found to picture what Moses is doing is I picture drawing a circle with my hand.
SPEAKER_01: To picture drawing a circle with your hand.
SPEAKER_01: And when you first draw it, it's kind of squiggly and it's not perfect and things don't work right.
SPEAKER_01: But then as you keep going around this circle, the lines get heavier and darker, and it starts looking more like a circle instead of a misshapen head.
SPEAKER_01: And I think Moses is doing something kind of like that with his words.
SPEAKER_01: He's going over and over and over again these same ideas, and he's hammering them home for the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Jeremy described it almost a month ago, probably, as Moses pleading with them.
SPEAKER_01: That was a beautiful picture of what Moses is doing.
SPEAKER_01: He's just asking them again and again and begging with them, pleading them to hear what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: And as he keeps going and he keeps going and he keeps saying all these similar things about God's word and God's deeds, God's character, love and fearing and obeying him, the circle gets darker, the circle gets heavier, and his point comes into focus.
SPEAKER_01: Like when the optometrist flicks that little lens over in front of your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden you can read that nonsense string of characters.
SPEAKER_01: Just like that.
SPEAKER_01: And so this morning, our job, our purpose, our task, our goal is to hop on Moses' merry-go-round.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna do my best to show you guys how Deuteronomy chapter eight teaches the exact same things.
SPEAKER_01: I'm convinced of this, the exact same things that chapter six taught us last week and chapter four and five of the week before.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So let's begin.
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy chapter eight and verse one.
SPEAKER_01: The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do.
SPEAKER_01: Whenever you open this section of Deuteronomy, the first sec the first thing you're gonna pick up on is this commandments, these rules, these statutes, and obedience, and Moses saying, I put before you things, hero Israel, keep my words, remember, do what I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first thing I see is this commandment and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you have your Bibles ready.
SPEAKER_01: This is a Gnosis in the book kind of Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna go back to chapter four, and I'm gonna show you with Moses.
SPEAKER_01: If he's gonna hammer it in over and over and over again, so will we.
SPEAKER_01: Back to chapter four and verse one.
SPEAKER_01: And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter four, verses five and six.
SPEAKER_01: See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering, to take possession of it.
SPEAKER_01: Keep them and do them.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 4, verse 40.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today.
SPEAKER_01: And that's just chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 5 and verse 29, God is speaking and commending Israel for their attitude before him at Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Oh, that they, that is Israel, had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments.
SPEAKER_01: And then chapter six and verse one.
SPEAKER_01: Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them.
SPEAKER_01: And there are many more.
SPEAKER_01: But here we come, back to chapter 8 and verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do.
SPEAKER_01: Moses gives a command.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm giving you a commandment, and then he commands we obey the commandment.
SPEAKER_01: He's being very emphatic.
SPEAKER_01: He's being very, he's driving it home.
SPEAKER_01: But why?
SPEAKER_01: Why are the commands so important?
SPEAKER_01: Why is obedience so important to Moses?
SPEAKER_01: It's right there in the second half of verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss the little words, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land the Lord swore to give to your fathers.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see that the commandments and obedience to the commandments is followed by blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Blessing comes when we obey the commandments of our God.
SPEAKER_01: And this too is all over this section of Deuteronomy, but we'll come back to it later.
SPEAKER_01: Just know that Moses wants his people to obey the command to receive the blessing.
SPEAKER_01: I love how Pastor Jeremy said it last week.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord, and Moses speaking on behalf of God, wants his people to flourish.
SPEAKER_01: What a beautiful word.
SPEAKER_01: To flourish under his lordship.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to bless his people for their obedience.
SPEAKER_01: So more on that later.
SPEAKER_01: But the thing that we need to remember about Moses is this is the guy who wrote Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_01: This is the guy who led Israel out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: This is the guy who heard them grumble about being thirsty after they'd been freed from slavery.
SPEAKER_01: This is the guy who came down from the mountain and saw the golden calf.
SPEAKER_01: This is the guy who wrote the story of Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_01: He knows better than any of us that obedience is no longer in the heart of man.
SPEAKER_01: And so what Moses is going to do now is he is going to do everything he can because he's pleading with them.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to do everything he can to equip them to obey because he knows how crucial it is.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how important he is.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how hard it is.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean he gives up.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first thing he tells them to do, and the key to obedience, starts right here, chapter 8, verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: And you shall remember the whole way the Lord your God led you these 40 years in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: This theme of remembrance is all over this path, all over Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_01: All over.
SPEAKER_01: And here specifically, Moses begins with remembering the things that God has done.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: And there's so much, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: You ready?
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 4, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of the fire and the thunder and the voice of God at Mount Sinai, Moses writes, Only take care and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 4, verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.
SPEAKER_01: Did any people ever hear the voice of a God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and still live?
SPEAKER_01: Or has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
SPEAKER_01: All the things that God has done, Moses is reminding them of, and then look at chapter 6, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: What Moses wants the nation to pass on to their kids, not just parents to their own kids, but the nation as a whole to pass on to the nation's kids.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 6, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: When your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules the Lord our God has commanded you?
SPEAKER_01: Then you shall say to your son, We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Pass on to the next generation.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, O nation of Israel, what the Lord has done.
SPEAKER_01: And when fears arise, chapter 7, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: If you say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them?
SPEAKER_01: You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: The great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm.
SPEAKER_01: Sounding familiar?
SPEAKER_01: And here in chapter 8, Moses focuses in on what God did in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: And you shall remember chapter 8 and verse 2 the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
SPEAKER_01: He fed you manna.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Your clothing did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell these 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: All this time that we've been living in a desert, we've had food, we've had clothing, our bodies haven't broken down.
SPEAKER_01: And we have been led by God.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what God has done in the wilderness, Moses says to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But not just that, not just what God has done, but the content of what God has said.
SPEAKER_01: Let alone the fact that this is a God who speaks.
SPEAKER_01: That's one thing.
SPEAKER_01: That's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: They heard a voice.
SPEAKER_01: But let alone the fact that he speaks, remember what he said.
SPEAKER_01: The whole beginning of chapter 5, verses 1 to 21 is Moses repeating verbatim what God said, his words.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 22, Moses summarized chapter 5, verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice.
SPEAKER_01: And he added, No more.
SPEAKER_01: And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
SPEAKER_01: See, when this God speak, he spoke in the presence of a nation worth of witnesses, that his words would be remembered, and more than that, he wrote them down with his own finger.
SPEAKER_01: Because this God's words matter.
SPEAKER_01: Remember his words.
SPEAKER_01: Even more, chapter six, verse six.
SPEAKER_01: What are we supposed to teach our kids?
SPEAKER_01: And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: You shall teach them, that is these words.
SPEAKER_01: You shall teach these words diligently to your children.
SPEAKER_01: And you shall talk of these words when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise, you shall bind these words as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: You shall write these words on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
SPEAKER_01: And then come back to chapter 8 with me.
SPEAKER_01: Moses tells us something really, really profound.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: And he humbled you, speaking of God, humbling Israel in the wilderness, and he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know.
SPEAKER_01: That man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Moses says, Everything God did in the wilderness in one way or another was designed by the one who designed the heavens to teach the Israelites that they could trust his word.
SPEAKER_01: They should rely on his words.
SPEAKER_01: And now, O Israel, don't forget his words, Moses says.
SPEAKER_01: That's huge, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget what he said.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget what he did.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget who he is.
SPEAKER_01: What did Jesus teach us?
SPEAKER_01: You will know a tree by its fruit, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
SPEAKER_01: You know what kind of tree it is based on what kind of fruit it produces.
SPEAKER_01: And you will know what kind of heart a person has from the words they speak.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says that to our shame.
SPEAKER_01: But it is to God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: The things he's done, the things he's said, reveal to us who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Get this.
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: Take care, O Israel, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 24 of chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
SPEAKER_01: That's who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 4, verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord your God is a merciful God.
SPEAKER_01: He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenants with your fathers that he swore to them.
SPEAKER_01: He won't do that stuff because of who he is.
SPEAKER_01: All of this stuff that Israel learned about who Yahweh is.
SPEAKER_01: Look at chapter 4, verse 34.
SPEAKER_01: Has any God done all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 35.
SPEAKER_01: To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord is God.
SPEAKER_01: All those gods of Egypt are fake.
SPEAKER_01: There is but one God.
SPEAKER_01: This one is God, and there is no other besides him.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 5, verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: Moses retelling the story of Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: And as soon as you, nation of Israel, as soon as the nation of Israel heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders, and you said, Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness.
SPEAKER_01: This God is glorious.
SPEAKER_01: This God is great.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not bow down to them or serve them.
SPEAKER_01: For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
SPEAKER_01: His commandments, his very commandments, he intends to reveal who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children of the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, verse 10, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments, those thousands are thousands of generations.
SPEAKER_01: His steadfast love endures forever.
SPEAKER_01: That's who he is.
SPEAKER_01: His words, his very commands, reveal to the nation of Israel who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Turn back to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: This is important, and I need to slow down a little bit so that we see it.
SPEAKER_01: Something new is revealed about the character of God right here in chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: Moses had come to understand something in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.
SPEAKER_01: And so while in the Exodus and at Mount Sinai, Israel learned that there was but one true God, a holy, only, a holy God, a holy and righteous God, a consuming fire who was yet somehow still merciful and loving.
SPEAKER_01: In the wilderness, they learned that this God is like a dad.
SPEAKER_01: And I hesitate to tell you this because it's one of those universal claims that you should be afraid to make in public.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna say it.
SPEAKER_01: So there's your grain of salt.
SPEAKER_01: Google it later if you don't believe me.
SPEAKER_01: It's good for you to look it up.
SPEAKER_01: But to the best of my studies, this is the first time in the story of redemption in your Bibles when anybody ever has called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob a dad.
unknown: Ever.
SPEAKER_01: This is huge.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas Watson wrote, It is a mercy to redeem a slave.
SPEAKER_01: But it is more to adopt him.
SPEAKER_01: You see, it's one thing for an ancient king to overtake another king and take his slaves.
SPEAKER_01: It was one thing for the God of heaven to tell Pharaoh the Israelites would no longer serve Pharaoh, but they will serve me.
SPEAKER_01: That's one thing for God to say, and he said it.
SPEAKER_01: And these people trembled before their new king.
SPEAKER_01: They learned that this God of heaven had fire, not just chariots.
SPEAKER_01: This is the God who brought plagues and fire and brought Pharaoh to his knees.
SPEAKER_01: I guess we'll serve him now.
SPEAKER_01: But in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: As Moses watched and interceded before this God not to consume the entire nation time and time again for their disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: As Moses witnessed God doing peculiar things to teach the nation of Israel stuff.
SPEAKER_01: As Moses noticed that they had everything they needed because God gave it to them.
SPEAKER_01: And dad that ought to bring us all to our knees.
SPEAKER_01: What's more, the king who conquered Pharaoh and took his slaves intended to make those slaves his kids.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord disciplines you as sons.
SPEAKER_01: That's huge.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with me.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, there is none like you in all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: All glory be to your name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Moses writes chapter eight, verse five.
SPEAKER_01: This is all over.
SPEAKER_01: Moses wants us to remember and not forget in our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: The best way I found.
SPEAKER_01: Describe what that looks like is knowing it as well as I know my own name, as well as I know that my name is Webster.
SPEAKER_01: Know what God has said and what God has done and who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Know it in your heart, Moses writes.
SPEAKER_01: And he doesn't just write it here.
SPEAKER_01: Look back at chapter 4, verse 9 again.
SPEAKER_01: Only take care and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 4, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: And lest the things your eyes have seen depart from your heart all the days of your life.
SPEAKER_01: What does God commend the Israelites for in chapter 5, verse 29, when he says, Oh, that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments that it might go well with them and their descendants forever.
SPEAKER_01: The God of heaven, and Moses on his behalf, cares about what kind of hearts these people have.
SPEAKER_01: Because at Mount Sinai they got it.
SPEAKER_01: At the foot of Sinai they saw who this God really is.
SPEAKER_01: They saw the fire and the thick cloud and the smoke, and they heard the voice that was as thunder.
SPEAKER_01: As the God of heaven put his big toe on the top of a mountain and the whole earth shook.
SPEAKER_01: They saw it.
SPEAKER_01: They knew who he was.
SPEAKER_01: And they were afraid in their hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's not clear enough that God cares about the kind of hearts his people have.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse chapter 6, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_01: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
SPEAKER_01: And these words that I command you today shall be where?
SPEAKER_01: On your heart.
SPEAKER_01: And right here, in these same two verses, 529 and 6, in the early part of chapter 6, Moses makes clear that when we know these things about God, when we know who he is and what he's said and what he's done, when we get that, all of a sudden the first thing that happens is fear.
SPEAKER_01: That's what happened at Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: They were afraid.
SPEAKER_01: And then just a few short verses later into chapter 6, that fear becomes love as they realize the Holy One of Heaven who can shake the foundations of the earth without even trying.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a dad.
SPEAKER_01: How do you not love someone with that much power who loves you like a father?
SPEAKER_01: And so you see that when we know who he is in our hearts, our hearts are filled with the fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And what's so powerful is in these same two verses, 529 and 6.5.
SPEAKER_01: The love of the Lord and the fear of the Lord is that which fuels their obedience, the keeping of the commands.
SPEAKER_01: 529, right?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments.
SPEAKER_01: And so our circle closes.
SPEAKER_01: When you know who God is in your heart, as well as you know your own name.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll be the first to tell you, I don't know him that well.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody in this room does.
SPEAKER_01: But when you do, someday we will, when you do, then you will love him.
SPEAKER_01: And then you will fear him.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the stuff obedience is made of.
SPEAKER_01: I'd be remiss if I didn't show you that this same thing happens in chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: So go back to chapter 8 with me, verse 5 again.
SPEAKER_01: Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.
SPEAKER_01: Knowing that in your heart, verse 6, so, in this way, so you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways, and by fearing him, by knowing who he is in your heart, and by fearing him, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways.
SPEAKER_01: When we remember who this God is, when we fear him and love him, that's what fuels our obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And when we obey God like that, out of that reverent, bone-shaking, knee-knocking fear and awestruck admiration and adoration, that, that moment, that kind of obedience is the kind of obedience our God loves to shower blessings down upon his people for.
SPEAKER_01: He loves to.
SPEAKER_01: Brings a smile to his face, like a dad who gives his kid a Christmas present.
SPEAKER_01: He's not a withholding God by any stretch of the imagination.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think of your God that way.
SPEAKER_01: But remember, the Lord disciplines us like sons, and if even earthly fathers know that rewarding the obedience of their children with blessing empowers more obedience because all of a sudden you can remember the blessings, and it just keeps going and going.
SPEAKER_01: If he knows that and he loves to bless his kids, how much more does he know how to bless them without spoiling them?
SPEAKER_01: It's no mistake, and you'll see in the second half of chapter 5 that Moses runs this thing backwards.
SPEAKER_01: All of the commands become disobedience, notably making idols.
SPEAKER_01: All of the remembers become forgets.
SPEAKER_01: All of the in your hearts, your hearts become lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: And in verse 17, it's no accident that when Moses writes, beware lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.
SPEAKER_01: That he perfectly describes a spoiled child.
SPEAKER_01: Perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: When we forget who our God is, and our hearts become lifted up, and we attribute our successes to our own hands.
SPEAKER_01: My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.
SPEAKER_01: When we say that, when we forget that the blessings come from God, we become the spoiled, rotten children whose hearts are lifted up, who no longer fear and love the Lord, but we love ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And when that happens, obedience falls apart at the seams.
SPEAKER_01: And when the obedience and when the circle breaks down, Moses is very clear.
SPEAKER_01: That when that whole thing breaks down, the blessing goes away, and all that's left is destruction.
SPEAKER_01: The opposite of obedience is disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: The opposite of remembrance is forgetting.
SPEAKER_01: The opposite of remembering in your heart is your heart being lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: And then you don't fear and love the Lord anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You love yourself, and then the blessing is gone.
SPEAKER_01: And all that remains is destruction.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 8, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.
SPEAKER_01: Like the nations of the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, while outward obedience isn't only an indication, only a hint of a heart that fears and loves the Lord for all he's said, done, and is, disobedience of any kind at any time, always, is a mathematical proof of a lack of love, a lack of fear.
SPEAKER_01: When we disobey, it's because we don't love him anymore.
SPEAKER_01: When we disobey, it's because we don't fear him anymore.
SPEAKER_01: That's how this works.
SPEAKER_01: The blessing then is gone.
SPEAKER_01: Because in that moment, the Israelites and us are no different from the nations they're going to drive out before them.
SPEAKER_01: Become just like the pagans, the Gentiles, the Canaanites, those who don't know God.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, that's why we're never thinking about the cross of Christ when we shout at other drivers on South Washington.
SPEAKER_01: It's why we aren't thinking about that teacher beside the sea who broke loaves for thousands when we worry about how we're going to pay our bills.
SPEAKER_01: It's why we're never thinking about the faithful, covenant-keeping God of Israel when we break our promises or step out in the slightest hint of infidelity.
SPEAKER_01: When we disobey, it's because we forgot our God.
SPEAKER_01: But what causes that forgetfulness?
SPEAKER_01: And the answer is right here, it's right in front of us.
SPEAKER_01: We forget because we never knew.
SPEAKER_01: We forget because we don't actually know all that he said.
SPEAKER_01: We don't actually know all that he's done.
SPEAKER_01: We don't actually know who he is.
SPEAKER_01: We know some.
SPEAKER_01: We really know enough.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't know it all.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, guys, if you're in Christ, hear me now.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in Christ, if you know that Jesus Christ of Nazareth died on a cross as the only begotten Son of God for the sins of the world, that you could be forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: If you know that, and if you believe that, you have enough to run this whole circle for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need more blessings.
SPEAKER_01: You have Him.
SPEAKER_01: You've seen enough to fear and love this God, because at the cross, the power of God, the mercy of God, the fatherly care of God is on display.
SPEAKER_01: And you know enough about Him to love Him.
SPEAKER_01: But we forget because we don't fully understand.
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't know the depths of Calvary, because we don't know the depths of the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: Which is why a Christian's greatest hope and our greatest longing isn't the streets of gold.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: It's seeing Jesus for who he really is.
SPEAKER_01: This is one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible.
SPEAKER_01: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so we are.
SPEAKER_01: You hear the whole thing coming together?
SPEAKER_01: The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, we are God's children now.
SPEAKER_01: And what we will be has not yet appeared.
SPEAKER_01: But we know that when he that is Jesus appears, we shall be like him.
SPEAKER_01: Because we shall see him as he is.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure, knowing Jesus, really knowing Jesus, purifies all the disobedience right out of you.
SPEAKER_01: Because you can't look upon him and not love him.
SPEAKER_01: When you see him, when he opens your eyes so that you can see him, that's important.
SPEAKER_01: When he reveals himself to us, finally and in full glory, and we are glorified to join him, we will be filled with the love of God, that perfect love that casts out all fear.
SPEAKER_01: One last thing.
SPEAKER_01: This whole Deuteronomy thing, this whole bit I've been telling you, it sounds kind of like a prosperity thing, right?
SPEAKER_01: Obedience equals blessing, and disobedience equals destruction.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, you want good stuff, obey God, and then he owes you a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it sounds like, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's not how it works.
SPEAKER_01: And there's one reason.
SPEAKER_01: There's one reason why.
SPEAKER_01: And it played out in the history of Israel, in pages of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: They never obeyed.
SPEAKER_01: Not once.
SPEAKER_01: Sure, there are bright moments, but they never obeyed him out of a pure heart that feared him and loved him fully.
SPEAKER_01: They never did it, they never got it.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that the nation of Israel had control of Jerusalem for half a second was a moment of pure grace.
SPEAKER_01: Before they even got into the promised land, they forgot their God.
SPEAKER_01: After they got into the promised land, they forgot their God.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the book of Judges.
SPEAKER_01: Just skim it.
SPEAKER_01: You'll see.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that they aren't in Egypt anymore is a gift of pure grace.
SPEAKER_01: This generation of Israelites standing before the Jordan, the next generations of Israelites under the judges, they forgot their God.
SPEAKER_01: But a later generation of Israelites would not set up but one, but two golden calves, as if one wasn't enough.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about forgetting your God.
SPEAKER_01: And then they worshiped them and called them the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not making it up.
SPEAKER_01: So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold, and he said to the people, You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough.
SPEAKER_01: And this part ought to break our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: And in that way Israel worshipped their own hands, as they made idols out of their golden wealth with their own hands, and exalted them above the God who sat in the temple at Jerusalem and worshipped those things.
SPEAKER_01: And by this point, they'd been in the land of Canaan for generations.
SPEAKER_01: But the word of the Lord proved true.
SPEAKER_01: Just as Joshua drove the Canaanites from their homes in total destruction, as an outpouring of the wrath of God, just like that.
SPEAKER_01: Babylon and Assyria before them, and the Philistines before them, for that matter, swept through Canaan, swept through Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy 8.20 held true.
SPEAKER_01: Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: Every dot, every iota, every crossing of the T is true in God's word.
SPEAKER_01: But what could be done then?
SPEAKER_01: Now what?
SPEAKER_01: As Moses is going to tell us later, one Israelite would come, a prophet like Moses.
SPEAKER_01: God would raise this one up and he would put his words in that prophet's mouth.
SPEAKER_01: And we know God did all that and more.
SPEAKER_01: When the eternal Son of God, the eternal word of God took on flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about having the words of God stored up in your heart that you might not sin against him.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ of Nazareth's heart was made of the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: His heart was the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: The word took on flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And that Israelite invaded Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: He drove out every last sin.
SPEAKER_01: He had utter victory.
SPEAKER_01: He never once forgot who his father was.
SPEAKER_01: And his obedience was perfect.
SPEAKER_01: And then somehow, and this is this is by far the most beautiful thing I can think of.
SPEAKER_01: Somehow.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't receive the blessing.
SPEAKER_01: He received the destruction.
SPEAKER_01: He hung on that cross.
SPEAKER_01: And the wrath of God that drove the Canaanites from Canaan and drove the Israelites from Israel, that same wrath of God was poured out on him as he bore the destruction, even though he deserved no destruction.
SPEAKER_01: And here it is.
SPEAKER_01: Here is the infinite wisdom and glory and majesty and power of God.
SPEAKER_01: Somehow, this is no man could have thought this up.
SPEAKER_01: Somehow, the destruction, the destruction itself, God Almighty, his sovereign wisdom and divine plan, took that punishment and turned it into a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: And somehow, the destruction of the Son of God wasn't enough to overpower the blessing that the Father wanted to give the Son.
SPEAKER_01: And he rose from the grave and he ascended to the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And now he is seated at the right hand, exalted above all.
SPEAKER_01: His name is above all names.
SPEAKER_01: And he won't just get the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: He gets it all.
SPEAKER_01: All of the blessings will be his.
SPEAKER_01: And somehow, his destruction is to his glory.
SPEAKER_01: And what's more, the blessing he received had enough blessing in it for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: He swallowed up the destruction.
SPEAKER_01: He took it upon himself.
SPEAKER_01: And now there is enough blessing in Jesus Christ that we can be sons and daughters of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's huge.
SPEAKER_01: I've been out of notes for five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, God most high, maker of the heavens and the earth, the Holy One of Israel, the great redeemer of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: We praise you and we bless your name for your marvelous wisdom and insight.
SPEAKER_01: Who is like you among all the earth?
SPEAKER_01: Surely no one, O God.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we pray and we ask that you would take your words today and you would use them in our hearts to reveal to our hearts who you are.
SPEAKER_01: That you would be glorified in our hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_01: And that as you are glorified, as we behold your glory, as Israel beheld it at Sinai, as we s as we behold you, we would love you and we would fear you.
SPEAKER_01: By the power of your Spirit, on account of the blood shed by your Son, and the power of your mercy and forgiveness, O God, create in us clean hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Create in us right spirits.
SPEAKER_01: Make us like your Son.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.